Sometimes, I wonder that maybe it would be a good idea if I write my posts down first before I post them on here. The reason for this is because when I made my post about Jim Friend, I left out another significant incident concerning him that occurs in “He Was Weird.”

This particular incident happens even before the more major affair of Mark being indecently assaulted by the adult. It happens when Mark has been officially diagnosed with having Asperger’s Syndrome and Deficiencies in Attention, Motor Skills and Perception, (DAMP.) First, Jim teases Mark by making jokes about the long winded name of his condition and ridicules him more when Mark tries to explain what it is. That’s not the worst thing however. Jim accuses Mark and his family of using his condition to live off the government, live off the taxes paid by Jim’s and other working families. He states that Mark is little better than a welfare cheat who live off the government like certain racial minorities.

Like I said in the previous post, there is little direct physical bullying of Mark at the hands of Jim. However, following the two mentioned incidents, he uses the fact that his uncle is chief of police to get to him. When the bullying gets even worse, Jim tells Mark that the police won’t do anything about it because they are sick of intervening on Mark’s behalf. In Mark’s mind, this appears to be true because of the police’s apparent lack of concern of Jim Nickerson violating the restraining order. In fact, it is Jim who tells everyone about the restraining order and incites people to bully Mark by getting them to say, “I want you to get a restraining order on me.”

It is these actions that give Mark the feeling of helplessness. Feeling that there is no one there to help him, he believes his only redress is to get guns and eliminate his bullies that way and as I said last time, Jim is definitely targeted in his sights.

Since I was never officially diagnosed with anything like autism, none of the above instances ever happened to the actual person Jim Friend is based on. However, he did seem to be there and sometimes ignite much of the bullying others did of me at the time. One of those who followed the flow was the person who influenced the character of Damon Bates and whom I will be posting about next time.

Now that I’ve exhausted all of the eighth grade bullies in “He Was Weird,” as well as linking to my actual real life bullies, I can move on. So now we go back to non eighth grade bullies starting with Jim Friend who was in Mark’s class in that fateful year. Jim’s first major bullying appearance in the book happens while they are in sixth grade. He joins Joe Kellerman and others in repeatedly pushing Mark up against the school fence. While the others continue to do this, Jim takes to hitting Mark on the head with one of his books. Fortunately, that is the only real bullying Mark receives from him in sixth grade.

Roll on a year later. Jim comes into his own during the incident where Mark has his shorts pulled down by the substitute teacher. Like so many of the jocks who saw this teacher as some sort of hero, he is incensed that Mark had told his mother about the incident and the police being involved. Jim threatens that if Smiley gets in serious trouble, he will make Mark pay. He also informs the eighth grade jocks about Mark telling the police so they can get their own retribution. Mark tries to defuse things by telling Jim that if anything happens to him, he will get the police in on the perpetrators. This plays right into Jim’s hands. He informs Mark that his uncle if the chief of police.

There is no more physical confrontation between the two after that but Jim does use his family connections against Mark. The substitute never goes to trial for his indecent assault on Mark. When Mark’s mother and grandfather meet the DA and chief of police, they inform them that a deal has been worked out sparing the teacher from jail. One reason, explained by the police chief, is that his nephew has written a statement along with others at the school stating that Mark is a liar and a troublemaker. It is those statements that convince the prosecutor not to go to trial.

In the months after, Jim, who has always been friends with bully Mike Sigfried, actively and passively encourages his bullying of Mark. Not only that, he always seems to be there when others bully Mark as well, giving assistance with comments. That is why on the big day of Mark’s revenge, he is listed as a target and while Mark is certain that one of his bullets finds Jim, he doesn’t realise the extent of the wound it inflicts.

If you know the German word for friend, you would figure out the actual person Jim Friend is based on. Here’s where things get difficult because the indecent assault never happened to me there so that part with the police and DA never did. However, I do know that his uncle was the chief of police in the town. Another point is that while I had very little actual physical bullying sans being hit on the head with the book, he always seemed to be around when much of the bullying occurred. Furthermore, he did chime in with the odd comment that either damaged me or spurred the bullies on. Now my usual spiel about forgiveness applies here but my thoughts are that even after all these years, he would deny his part in anything. I hope this wouldn’t really be the case.

Whenever there is a group bullying of a victim or victims, the bullies are usually divided into two categories. Most of the bullies, especially the last two, who have been covered from “He Was Weird,” fall into the first category, which I will call the aggressors. These are the ones who do most of the actual bullying as we know it and many examples of such have been provided in the previous posts. The second group is the one the group that this post talks about. They are the spectators or another word I could use is ‘passive’ bullies. They may not do much of the actual bullying, maybe a teasing comment to the victim. In many cases, they will actively egg the aggressors on and if not, quietly be amused by the bullying that is occurring and provide an audience for the bullies to do their dirty work. I fully intend to look at this in more detail in a future post but right now, let’s just look at the ones in “He Was Weird.”

Matt Barber is the foremost of said bullies. He doesn’t do any of the hands on bullying that Mark experiences from the other eighth graders in the story. However, he is there when a lot of it happens and encourages the bullies in making their victim’s life miserable. Even on the one occasion where he is physically aggressive towards Mark because he thinks Mark had him fired as editor of the school newspaper when the paper branded Mark “gay,” Matt does so with the help of his friends. The same with the teasing, he only does it when others are around.

While the rest of the passive bullies from eighth grade are unnamed, their presence is definitely felt by Mark and hopefully the reader. They are there to encourage the violence and threats Mark receives and to take great delight in David Roseman’s tale of he and Mark being homo buddies. It is an unknown character who asks David how many kids did they have. It is no wonder why when Mark exacts his revenge, he feels that everyone deserves to die.

When it does happen, there are many eighth graders who are either killed or wounded on that fateful day. Matt Barber does not escape the bullets either. He is wounded with a bullet in the abdomen and we learn later that he tries to use it to impress a girl by saying he was a great survivor.

The thing about this type bullying is that many of them don’t realise they were involved in the bullying and would claim innocence of any wrong doing. That is the problem with passive bullying, it is often too difficult for the victim to prove and in my case I wouldn’t be able to identify those people anyway. Still Mark Garbor, since he was my inspiration for the Matt Barber character, can see the effects he had on me. Therefore, he is the one who would need to apologise for my forgiveness.

Next post: Jim Friend

To buy He Was Weird, go to: http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1442334097&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird

In “He Was Weird,” the character Joe Callazone was a little of all of the previous eighth grade bullies I’ve covered so far all rolled into one. First, like so many of his teammates, he is very critical of Mark for quitting the American football team and constantly demands to know why he quit. Like David Roseman, he too raised questions over Mark’s sexuality by inviting him to an all male orgy and making remarks about penises. While his physical bullying of Mark wasn’t to the extreme of Jim Nickerson’s, he found it very amusing to poke Mark in the glasses with his fingers. Admittedly, one would think that this wasn’t too bad but it had the same effect as the bullying of Brian Cullen had on Mark. It made him feel intimidated and eroded what little self esteem he had. However, what made Joe’s bullying worse was the fact that whenever Mark was on the receiving end of any bullying from the eighth graders, he always seemed to be present.

One shining example of the last part of the above paragraph happens when Mark is indecently assaulted by the substitute teacher. Because the substitute is considered a hero among the jocks, some of the seventh grade jocks in Mark’s class take exception to the fact that his family had their hero teacher arrested. Joe happens to be walking by while this is happening and the spokesman for the group harassing Mark tells Joe that he has gotten the substitute in trouble. Joe says nothing at the time but later on at lunch, Mark is accosted by a group of eighth graders who threaten they will get him if their hero goes down. Of course, they all get their punches and kicks in to ram home the point.

Joe is not present on the day Mark finally exacts his revenge for all the hell he had been through over the past three years. Luckily, he is away in Puerto Rico on a basketball programme and therefore survives the carnage Mark causes. When he hears about the death or near death of so many of his friends, he vows revenge of his own and he does get it in one way. Also, when Mark’s family move out of the town afterwards, the real estate company owned by Joe’s father helps them sell their house.

My inspiration for Joe Callazone came from a boy named Joe Carrazoni. He was a gifted athlete and did give me lots of crap when I quit the American football team. Furthermore, he carried out the finger poking of the glasses as well as making jokes about me going with him and other boys to an all male orgy. And he often seemed to be around when the other eighth graders were bullying me. I have come through all of that and that’s why I am willing to forgive but like with all the others, he must want my forgiveness otherwise it would be empty.

Next post: The Less Important Eighth Graders

To buy He Was Weird, go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1441652314&sr=1-1&keywords=he+was+weird